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mdwatchestv · 6 years

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The Magicians 3x12 + 3x13: Hail to the King, Baby

Better late than never, here is the finale wrap up of season 3 of the Magicians. Maybe this is so late because I was decimated by the Magicians thoroughly recapping itself in a manner so comprehensive and aggressive that I was briefly unable to continue on. Josh's recap of the 40th timeline to Penny 23 was so snappy and entertaining, it sent me into a wild fit of existential despair - how does one recap a show that recaps itself? Josh even had sex charts, and comprehensive notes showing the kind of recap mastery you will not see on this blog. Thus is the charm and the fury of the Magicians, a show that refuses to be tamed, categorized, or even written about coherently. Long may it reign.

It was especially interesting, here at the end of season 3, to look back via Josh's recap to season 1. Q and Alice wearing the Brakebills sweater vest set was especially strange to remember, and illustrated how far this show has ventured tonally since its earlier days. While season 1 was not without its batshit crazy moments, its Taylor Swift sing-a-longs, its 39 timelines, the show still felt like it was trying to color inside the lines. This was a story about young witches and wizards on a quest to defeat a great evil after all. This good vs evil storyline crept into season 2, where we finally saw the Beast's demise, but by then he was almost an afterthought as the Magicians ached to move on to bigger, wilder subjects than just one evil wizard. So now that we are in season 3, what is the Magicians about? Sure there is a quest to restore magic, but the show has broken free of it's "defeat the bad guy, save the world" mold. Antagonism and heroism can be found within individual characters, within moral battles about who is worthy of magic, life, and freedom, and within questions about how to govern a body of people (and talking animals) selflessly.

Nowhere has this intricacy and complex development been better illustrated than in the unending power struggle in Fillory. After seizing control from the Children of Earth, Tick Pickwick wants to put a country impoverished by the lack of magic and radical mismanagement back on the economic track. A Fillory run by actual Fillorians rather than magicless Earth children who were really just puppets for the Fairy Queen (another ruler trying to do the best for her people no matter the cost). Honestly the worst that can be said for Tick is that he betrayed our two most fiercely beloved characters, which although a grave offense from an audience point of view, actually had pretty noble intent. The Fillory storyline ended in a standoff of three different rulers, all of whom were trying to do right by their citizenry. It's a complex situation with many shades of gray and no real "right answer" in the context of the Fillorian world (no matter where our audience sympathies may lie). What a brilliant and odd place for a show initially advertised merely as "Harry Potter with sex, drugs, and partying" to end up.

Coming into episode 3x12, our magic troop has recovered all seven keys but one (key #6), which we know to be held by the Fairy Queen and is currently being used to prop up the Fairy Realm. Margo and Eliot are willing to give the Fairies full Fillorian citizenship and protection in exchange for the key, but they are no longer the rulers of Fillory, and don't have the magic to reclaim the throne from Tick. No magic, no power, no key, no magic. So they do what any self-respecting ousted monarchs do: force an election they intend to win through trickery and witchcraft. What begins as a genuine play for the Fillorians love (and votes), quickly devolves into a pissing contest between Eliot and Tick. The two attempt to one-up on another, Tick with policy, Eliot with outlandish empty promises. Feels...so familiar.

This storyline hit such a nerve with me that when Margo was announced as the surprise winner and new High King of Fillory, I burst into sudden, surprised tears. These tears only intensified as Eliot put aside his flaring ego to kneel before her and pledge his allegiance. "WHY AM I CRYING," I screamed at my boyfriend and cat who only stared back at me with wide terrified eyes. Why indeed. Maybe it was because Margo's genuine interest and acceptance of her populace (she was elected as a write-in candidate by talking animals) was able to cut through a cock fight. Margo who has perhaps suffered the most for Fillory: she has been showered in the blood of her suitors, married off to Joffrey's, and even lost an eye. Margo who started this series as a hard-partying mean girl who has risen to the top without compromising her own sense of self. Margo who once called her rival a chalky twat, Margo who brought a gun to a magic fight, Margo who has a creepy fairy eye. Margo who is now King, because a King can be called whatever the fuck they want.

Margo's storyline is also but one of the storylines this season that featured powerful women rising into their power. The Fairy Queen, who began this year as a villain, had one of the most season’s powerful turns. After proving herself to be a staunch advocate for her people rather than a malicious baddie she sacrifices herself in order to guarantee eternal safety for her people. Although I couldn't help wondering why no one had brokered such a deal before, but whatever it's done now, and I now cannot wait until Jamie Ray Newman gets her ass handed to her (a sentence I never thought I’d type). Julia also spent the season reconciling the power she was given by Our Lady Underground, eventually accepting it and nurturing it until it gave her (literal) god-like strength. But my personal favorite journey this year was that of Fen - the knife makers daughter who was married off to a king. Fen has really been through it, she lost her unborn daughter, her fake daughter, and even some toes. No matter the complexities of the fairy's sitch, there is no doubt they have done our girl Fen dirty. And so seeing Fen sitting on the Fillorian throne as Acting High King, and standing by the Fairy Queen's side attempting to aide her until the bitter end, was especially meaningful.

So with High King Margo on the throne, the magicians finally have all 7 keys and the final chapter of the quest book. They need to take the keys to a magic castle where the Knight in the story went to rescue her father, and is now apparently the eternal jailer of some terrifying monster. After hunting down Calypso, the nymph who imprisoned Odysseus (obviously), she explains that the the castle Blackspire (the literal opposite of Whitespire) is the castle built by the gods in order to hide all their fuck ups and also holds the magic fountain. Calypso’s lover and popular fire-gifter Prometheus crafted both the keys and the key quest in order to identify magicians worthy enough to take on the jailer mantle. However creating the keys robbed Prometheus of his strength and he was killed by his enemies. Calypso is pissed about this, but if I know anything about Prometheus (and the show The Magicians) it's that he is kind of a hard guy to kill. A foreshadow perhaps?

Our questers head out to the prison with a variety of different motives. Quentin has agreed to take the place of the Knight as eternity prison guard in exchange for entrance to the castle. Alice, originally wanting to help the Library siphon the magic for themselves, now wants no one to have magic because to her magic leads to bad times (she's not wrong). Eliot and Margo are not about to have Q go off and be a guard forever and are going with the shoot first ask questions later approach (gotta love em). Julia is absent as she has ascended to full god status and is off drinking tea and wearing a lot of highlighter (relatable). Upon arriving at the castle they discover what the Knight has been guarding is not so much a traditional monster, but rather a strange young man who acts like a child. Unfazed, Eliot shoots him. This seems to have been effective, and no one questions the sudden mysterious disappearance of the Knight. But before our group can finally unlock the magic fountain and restore power, Alice, hopped up on fairy powder, destroys the keys! After all we have been through this season to collect these goddamn keys, this was a real dick move. While Alice is attempting to escape Margo's righteous shanking, she sees the Knight now seemingly possessed with the golden light that lived in the "monster" Eliot shot. Not good!

Back at the fountain the day is temporarily saved when God!Julia, motivated by her sidekick Quentin's courage, descends and uses her power to create seven NEW keys. If only she had done this from the beginning. But this act apparently robs her of her golden god magic, at least for the time being. The magic fountain spurts back to life, but the victory is short-lived as JAIME RAY NEWMAN and Dean Fogg appear with the Library's siphon. These characters have really been testing me. The Library seizes the means of production, I mean all the magic, thereby granting them total control of magical ability and knowledge. Presumably Dean Fogg aided in their scheme in order to guarantee a magic allowance for Brakebills, but this shows a surprising lack of faith in his own students who not only defeated The Beast, but have performed a number of miraculous feats. He of little faith.

Time cut to the future, while magic is still spotty the more shocking twist is that our gang has been stripped of their memories and sent off to live among us mere muggles in the real world. Ironically Alice, the one who planned on starting a new life, is the only one who remembers what happened in the castle and is being held captive in the Library. She understands that the monster in the castle was NOT the young man, but rather whatever was inside of him. An unending want or need that appears as pretty gold lights and is now unstoppable.

Normally twists like this where characters lose memory, or their bodies are EXTREMELY stressful for me (the Faith/Buffy swap still causes tension). The idea that things are not as they should be (Dreamland I and II also traumatizing) and the regular flow of events has been thrown out of order is distressing to my order-craving brain. However with The Magicians every weird device is usually enjoyable, and often the weirder the better. Watching a clearly possessed Eliot psychotically stalking an amnesia-stricken Quentin down the streets of Vancouver gave me a surprising sense of excited glee rather than nervous dread. Whatever happens on The Magicians, no matter how incoherent or strange, at least you know it won’t be boring. What’s more this is a show that will seemingly never settle into complacency, it is a creeping vine

LINGERING QUESTIONS:

Penny 23 seems to have fully taken over Penny 40's storyline, with even the Unity Key acknowledging the swap. Whatever is going on with Penny 40 in the Library has been kept under wraps, but surely he will have a part to play in helping to free Alice.

Kacey Rohl is also running around wild and free in this timeline with her memories in tact! Possibly a valuable ally for those hoping to save the main crew.

Speaking of returning from the dead, Harriet and Victoria supposedly died when their portal between worlds collapsed, but we didn't see any bodies so I can't help feel like this isn't exactly permanent.

Now that Margo has had her memory wiped I guess Fen is just continuing to rule Fillory. Is anyone going to tell the Fillorians what's going down? Are they going to receive magic from the Library? Likely no, but they do have a new population of fairies who have their own ungovernable magic- handy!

Also Poppy (aka Felicia Day) is wandering around in our world after skipping out on Quentin and co. Technically she is still a Brakebills student I think!

Now that we know there is a whole world of gods, will we be getting more visits from them? Did Julia totally blow her chances at divinity by making the replacement set of keys?

Thank you for reading along this season! Stay tuned to this blog for new coverage, likely of Westworld. Theories galore.

Love ya, MD

One more Margo gif for the road:

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